Effect of the hydrogen/kerosene blend on the combustion characteristics and pollutant emissions in a mini jet engine under CDC conditions

Abstract

In this CFD study conducted with the geometry of a mini gas turbine engine using kerosene as fuel, colorless distributed combustion conditions were achieved by increasing the N2 ratio in the air. Then, H2 was added to the kerosene fuel in order to increase the combustion performance and the combustion chamber temperature distributions, NOx, CO, and CO2 values were examined. In the simulations using the simplified GTM-120 geometry, the combustion chamber outlet temperatures at 80 k, 100 k, and 120 k rpm were compared with the experimental results in the literature by changing the ratio of fuel and air for the validation study. Standard k-ε and Discrete Ordinates were chosen for turbulence and radiation models, respectively. In the study conducted with the non-premixed combustion model, simulations were made at O2 rates of 21%, 19%, 17%, and 15% for the formation of colorless distributed combustion conditions. For enrichment with hydrogen, H2 was added from 0% to 50% with 10% increments. HEF (Hydrogen energy fraction) has been used as the hydrogen addition rate. In light of the analyses made, it was seen that the colorless distributed combustion regime reduced the flame temperature from 2292 K to 1912 K and the NOx amount from 2.85 ppm to 0.0086 ppm. On the other hand, it is seen that this regime increased the CO emissions from 6.9 ppm to 38.67 ppm and the mole ratio of CO2 from 6.25% to 6.94%. It was observed that these findings prepared the ground for increasing the amount of hydrogen in the fuel, which increases the flame temperature and, accordingly, NOx emissions. By adding 50% H2 to kerosene under standard atmospheric conditions, the average NOx emission at the combustion chamber outlet increased from 2.85 ppm to 7.97 ppm, while the average CO emission decreased from 6.9 ppm to 1.08 ppm. As a matter of fact, by the addition of 50% H2 to the kerosene with air that contains 15% O2, which is the most extreme combustion situation in this study, the flame temperature decreased to 1912 K, and NOx rose to 0.0713 ppm. However, the CO emissions at the combustion chamber outlet decreased to 1.83 ppm and the CO2 ratio to 3.48%. Thus, with this study, it has become possible to use hydrogen as an alternative fuel in a real engine geometry by using CDC and hydrogen enrichment together, both in terms of pollutant emissions and combustion performance.